


Blue Eyes Meet

by HarlequinKing



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Lila Rossi Redemption, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:13:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 17,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24618148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarlequinKing/pseuds/HarlequinKing
Summary: Tim Drake doesn't have a soulmate after all he doesn’t have black blots or names on his skin. He's always been able to see color and he didn't visit anyone or anyplace in his dreams.Marinette similarly does not have a soulmate which has become a fantastic point of interest to Lila and her schemes to destroy everything she cares about.(This work has been Discontinued)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Bart Allen, Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Emilie Agreste/Nathalie Sancoeur, Jonathan Kent/Damian Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 143
Kudos: 596





	1. Tim Drake

Tim Drake didn’t have a soulmate; it was simply a fact. There was no blot of ink or name that was written in gold ink on his skin. He was able to see all of the colors since birth and he didn’t visit anyone or anyplace in his dreams. He just simply didn’t have a soulmate. All of his brothers had a soulmate in fact Dick has two. Nonetheless Tim had no soulmate and though he would never admit it to his brothers, who he still hadn’t told that he didn’t have one, he was jealous of them.

Dick met Wally when he was nine but found out he was his soulmate when he was thirteen and only because Wally decided it would be fun if he braided Dick’s hair during one of their sleepovers. This resulted in a section of Dick’s hair becoming rainbow along with Wally’s fingertips. 

Dick met Starfire when he was fifteen but had had contact with her since he was just a boy. Wally had long since accepted the fact that Dick had two soulmates and while he had been possessive he had realized that despite Dick having another soulmate he was still in love with Wally. Dick often shared the fun pictures starfire doodled on her arms but appeared on Dick’s as well. 

Jason first met Roy when he was thirteen but unlike Dick, he knew right away that this was his soulmate simply because of the sheer disorienting appearance of colors in his life. It was all shades of gray before they shook hands and both fell down due to the brightness of the world around them. 

Damian had grown up in an assassin’s guild and didn’t meet Jon until he was thirteen and was pulled via red string which had appeared when both were within a mile of each other. To say the batboys were amused as they watched Damian be pulled across the Batcave by his fingers was a lie and Tim had been sure to record it so when he was sad he could laugh at his brother’s undignified flailing. 

Tim loved his brothers and his family but nonetheless felt incredibly left out when they spoke of soulmates and how they loved them so. He knew his brother’s were waiting excitedly for when Tim would finally come home having met his soulmate but he knew that it would never happen. His brothers often joked that thirteen was a lucky number since they’d all met their soulmates or at least one of them when they were thirteen but Tim’s thirteenth birthday had already passed and so had his fifteenth and just like that he was sixteen and his brothers still joked about him finding his soulmate but Tim was getting sick of the jokes. 

Sometimes when Tim laid in bed late at night his insomnia in full bloom he could almost feel the pull on his soul but he was sure he was being dramatic and the harsh laugh that rang out of his mouth only deeper cemented the feeling of emptiness that filled his chest. 

When morning came and Tim had gotten no sleep he got out of bed and let the feeling of the emptiness roll over him before going to get his morning cup of coffee.


	2. Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Marinette Dupain-Cheng doesn’t have a soulmate; she didn’t have one when she was born nor when she was a child and she certainly didn’t have one now. She’d been fairly open about not having a soulmate or at least she thinks she has been. It’s not like she doesn’t love talking about soulmates and honestly she finds it a cute topic but it’s kind of awkward to sit around while Alya gushes about her soulmate Nino or when Rose commissions an outfit for her lovely soulmate Juleka who wants to be a model. 

She used to not mind the fact that she didn’t have a soulmate when she was younger. She used to not care about it besides being happy about people finding their soulmates. Then she got older and she couldn’t convince herself to not care about it. Watching everyone meet their soulmate made her slightly jealous. She wished she could have one but she has known that such a thing is ridiculous to hope for. 

Sometimes when she lays in bed at night hoping Hawkmoth doesn’t decide to cause another sleepless night via akuma. She lets herself falter and a few tears spill out. Tikki no matter what tried to keep her happy but somethings Tikki cannot even fix. Marinette lays in bed swearing she feels a pull in her chest but knowing it's probably fake and just a figment of the wish to have her own soulmate. 

Days come and go as Lila begins to lie more and more. Marinette sits in the back of the class drawing in her sketchbook. Something that used to make her happy and help her relieve stress is starting to wear on her. She wishes it wasn’t so but the day she finally forgets her sketchbook at home and only notices when she comes home hurts more than anything in a long time. More than any lie or suspension caused by Lila ever has. 

She doesn’t know who told Lila, mostly because everyone knows and it's not like it's a secret or anything. Marinette walks into the classroom she made sure to pack her sketchbook today in a vague hope of being able to focus on something other than Lila. Marinette climbs the stairs to the back of the classroom and puts her bag down. Black ink stains the light oak desk in front of her. The ink calls her soulless and tells her that the reason she doesn't have a soulmate is because no one could ever love her. She almost sits down but instead walks to the front to get a wipe and attempts to wipe it off. The ink is permanent and her classmates laugh at her struggles. Slowly the ink fades but the words are still visible. Taking a deep breath she sits down as the bell rings. 

The day ends with Lila claiming Marinette pushed her down the stairs once again. Her being suspended is just another usual. 3 days out of school suspension the note reads. Her classmates laugh as she is escorted out of the school by her parents. 

Her parents ask her again and again what happened and the answer is always the same. She pleads that she is innocent just as she always has been. Dinner is silent that night and when Marinette comes down the next day with plans to transfer to a school outside of France. Well they have been planning to expand the business. If they send Marinette ahead they could have her scout locations for the new bakery and have her start the first few weeks before moving the business completely. After all Paris just isn’t like it used to be. 


	3. Tikki is done with Marinette's shit

A month to summer break was more than enough to give Marinette a hope that she’d be free soon. Sadly, It also gave the class plenty of time to get penance for her apparent crime of not having a soulmate. As the days past Marinette further fell back into her previous ways before anything happened before she stood up to Chloe or became Ladybug. Marinette felt like if she could just get past the last month of school she’d be free. She’d move somewhere far away and never look back. 

As she sat down at her desk after being gone for the last three days of the week she knew they’d be waiting to get back at her. She hoped they learned that getting her suspended would just leave them less time to torment her as she wouldn’t be in school to feel any of the pain they inflicted. She of course wasn’t going to tell them this but honestly being home for multiple days just working was getting tiring. 

The desk that was once a light oak was now stained black from the sheer amount of ink that covered it which seemed to fade slowly out near the next seat over. Setting her bag down next to her she got out her missing work which she had picked up every morning before school started so she wouldn’t have to catch up which was deemed reasonable by all teachers besides Ms. Bustier. She would have to get Ms. Bustier’s work today and finished before it was technically due. 

She also had to finish Jagged’s outfit before next Friday which she hadn’t even started designing. She wasn’t trying to procrastinate but her parents were starting to give her lessons and what to look for in every location and how to run the business. This included leaving her in charge of the business for a two day period in hopes she’d be able to work through the things they’d taught her. Of course they were still there and helping her but throughout the days they started helping her less and less unless asked specifically to help. As the days went on she was more focused on the bakery and where she’d live for the summer than she was on designing. After she finished Jagged’s outfit she’d probably tell him that she’s run into a dry spell of ideas and that she might stop designing to work on other things before she began again. 

The day passed slowly with the lies spilling from Lila like a never stopping fountain. The akumas had slowly come to an almost halt recently but she wasn’t taking that as a sign to stop investigating Hawkmoth. She needed to find a way to stop Hawkmoth before the month ended and she was free to leave Paris behind. She just had to find a way to communicate with Hawkmoth without being akumatized. Which was going to be difficult but she’d find it. 

Walking home having turned in all her missing work and having Ms. Bustier’s work in her bag she felt accomplished in having finished another day. She didn’t usually count the days but it was better than counting the reasons. Walking through the bakery and into the back she set down her bag and refilled the almost empty display cases without a second thought. Ringing up the last customer she took the money and packed the bag of sweets handing the bag to the customer before finally snapping back to reality and walking back to the kitchen and grabbing her bag to go to her room. 

Finishing Ms.Bustiers work and attempting several designs of Jagged’s outfits before deciding she was done attempting to design what would’ve been easy in her past. Having zoned out considerably she was struck with a thought. What if I just get myself Semi-akumatized? Which honestly sounded insane but in her own opinion it didn’t sound like the worst idea. Which led her to asking Tikki if it would work. 

“Hey, Tikki, If I perhaps hypothetically, got like Semi-akumatized to where I could hear Hawkmoth could I hypothetically have a conversation with him and find out why he wants the miraculouses so badly or would that hypothetically be a very bad idea?” 

“Hey, Marinette, I love you very much and I know deep down that you cannot possibly be that stupid as to think that that would be anywhere near a good idea”

“But like hypothetically” 

Tikki sighed so deeply Marinette swore she could feel how tired Tikki was of her shit. “Hypothetically, probably. In practice, probably not” 

“Okay, but like what if-” 

“No, I’m not letting you get semi-akumatized” Tikki cut her off.

“Well it’s not really up to you now is it?” Marinette shot back before sitting down in the lotus position and starting to cry hysterically. Grief overwhelmed her as every single sad thing that had ever happened to her swept over her like an ocean and Marinette for the first time since she was thirteen and Hawkmoth attacked for the first time she let herself be fully submerged. Not soon after that did Marinette hear the wing flaps of a corrupted butterfly. 

Pushing her way back to the surface of the waves of grief she grabbed a ribbon and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Finally having a place to land the butterfly sat down on the top of her hair and was quickly absorbed becoming just a voice in her head. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments! They really make my day and I enjoy the feedback!


	4. Why are you crying?

Tim Drake or rather Red Robin sat at the Bat Computer. His Brothers were out and since Barbara was busy Tim was made to sit in the batcave instead of out catching criminals. Needless to say he was bored. The chatter from the coms was endless and from what Tim could hear was going to result in a fight between Red Hood and Robin. Tim pulled up his brother’s records and monitored to see who would win the small fight on the roof. 

The night wasn’t very exciting but wasn’t quiet enough to be concerning.Yawning slightly Tim reached for the cup of coffee sipping the bitter liquid which his brothers had called battery acid multiple times he felt better. The night was almost over and he’d be allowed to go to his room and lie in bed for multiple hours before going to work. His Brothers would finish fighting each other and start making their way back to the cave. 

Hearing the screech of wheels entering the cave. Tim closed everyone's records as they made their appearance at the cave. 

“How was patrol?” Tim asked facing the computer before stopping his voice being rougher than it usually was. 

“It was good, you okay Timmy?” Dick said concerned. Tim turned around and saw his brothers eyes widen slightly “Oh fuck, why are you crying?” 

“I’m crying?” Tim asked confused his free hand flying up to his face and feeling the wetness of tears “What the fuck, Why am I crying?” 

“Wait, you don't know why you're crying?” Dick asked, His brothers began coming through the cave entrance to give reports and end patrol. 

“No?” Tim answered hiccuping slightly. 

“You know what, I'll write up your reports for patrol tonight, you just go to bed okay?” Dick said, pulling Tim up and out of the chair in front of the computer.

“Okay, sorry,” Tim said walking off towards the entrance to the manor

“Hey, no it's okay, it's not your fault Timmers you just get some real sleep.” 

Tim walked into the manor and into his room. He flopped down onto the bed, tears ran down his face for no reason. Wiping them on his pillow he struggled to get under the blankets. Somehow he tears seemed to aid him in his quest for sleep effectively knocking Tim out for the foreseen future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While Marinette prepares to talk to a magical terrorist Tim cries uncontrollably for no reason.


	5. A Heart to Heart with Hawkmoth

“Lady Justice, I will give you the power to get back at everyone who ever wronged you if you retrieve the miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir” 

Pushing down as much emotion as she could, Marinette wiped her tears before speaking “Hello Hawkmoth before I accept I have a few questions. Would you be willing to answer them as I won’t remember them after my akumatizatation but they’ll provide me some comfort before I accept your power” 

“Well seeing as I couldn’t possibly pass up an opportunity to akumatize someone who will be as powerful as you I will answer your questions” Hawkmoth answered Marinette began to focus less on her emotions and more on the glowing purple in front of her eyes. 

“I’d like to know why?” Hawkmoth made a small noise of confusion at this before Marinette explained further “ Why terrorize Paris? Why do you need the miraculous? That's what I’m asking” 

Hawkmoth paused for a few seconds before sighing slightly “My soulmate, we have an emotion type bond, a small tattoo that changes color depending on the emotion that they feel. Which would be fine but she’s in a coma and I’m tired of seeing my tattoo stay a gray for numb, I want my soulmate back, I know it’s selfish but the miraculous of the ladybug and cat together can make a wish that can bring my soulmate out of her coma.” 

“Would your soulmate approve of terrorizing Paris to bring her back?” Marinette asked softly “is this what she would have wanted?” 

“Have you met your soulmate yet?” Hawkmoth questioned 

“No, I don’t have a soulmate” Marinette answered “have you tried asking Ladybug if she can do anything? How did your soulmate become comatose?” 

“She was a superhero well more a vigilante, she wanted to protect people but the method of using the peacock miraculous was flawed. It was broken at some point but she wanted to continue helping people even when she began to get sick” Hawkmoth paused for a moment and Marinette interjected with a question. 

“She was the previous peacock holder?” 

“Yes, she was amazing”

“If the peacock was broken why didn’t you get in contact with Ladybug to get her to fix it?” 

“Yes, of course why didn’t I think of that” the sarcasm in his voice was thick

“Well what if you get in contact with the Ladybug to have her fix the miraculous and see if she can heal your soulmate? I think she might be able to she did heal everyone after ever akuma that includes every death and injury” Marinette said

“She might be able to but would she? I have attacked Paris for over three years. I highly doubt she would be in the market of helping me” 

“Well what if you ask her? Like send her a non corrupted butterfly to just talk to her and ask her, She would probably be down to try and heal your soulmate if that stops you from terrorizing Paris of course you would probably lose your miraculous but you get your soulmate back and wouldn’t that be worth it?” Marinette questioned 

“I suppose,” Hawkmoth answered “does that answer all of your questions?” 

“I guess it does, thank you for talking with me I appreciate it even if it was to try and akumatize me,” Marinette said before reaching her hand back and pulling out the ribbon in her hair. Hawkmoth’s voice was becoming a simple background noise as Marinette stood up and reached onto her desk grabbing her fabric shears and cutting the ribbon as quickly as possible. A small butterfly flew out of the ribbon and Marinette was quick to grab it, sending as much of Tikki’s magic through her as possible. Opening her palm a pure white butterfly flew through the window to the balcony. “That worked better than expected,” Marinette said more to herself than anything. 

Tikki’s tiny paws hit against her ear “Why would you do that? You just endangered all of Paris with your stupidity,” 

“No, I didn’t Tikki, He’s doing this cause his soulmate ,the old peacock user, fell into a coma from using a broken miraculous for too long, If you teach me to heal I can take both the butterfly and peacock miraculous as payment for healing his soulmate,” Marinette answered Tikki 

“I suppose, I could teach you how to heal but I don’t think this is the best way to do things,” 

“Tikki, I can’t possibly understand the way you think simply because you are a god but, he has been terrorizing Paris for years. If I can end this without losing anyone else’s life I’m going to. I cannot live in fear and I’m certain no one else can for much longer. Suicide rates in Paris have almost tripled in the past three years and I’m sick of going to school worried that I will see one less face because of Hawkmoth causing people to repress their emotions to the point they think the best way to solve a problem is to end their life. I know that you have lived for centuries and millenniums but, I’m sixteen and I’m not just going to forget overtime like you have, that humans are so fragile but amazing and they only live for so long and to cut it short or to have them cut their own short is just agonizingly sad, so if I can solve this issue without leading to the death of anyone then I will because I’m sick of being surrounded by visions of death every time I go outside because I’ve been to every single akuma battle. I’ve seen my parents and friends die only to see them fine not even an hour later. I’m sorry you don’t understand but I don’t think I should have to justify my hatred of death and killing in general” Marinette said harshly before changing into her pajamas for another night of insomnia and maybe if she’s lucky nightmares. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love reading the theories in the comments they're really good but sadly I can't say anything about them because it would count as spoilers!


	6. Tim fucks up and then dissociates during Family Breakfast

Tim woke up in a cold sweat having fallen asleep while crying he was dehydrated and his face was tear streaked. Changing out of his old clothes he took a shower before changing into t-shirt and sweatpants. He wasn’t planning on going into work today so it wasn’t something he was worried about. Looking at the clock he was surprised that he somehow got up on time. 

Breakfast was being served as he made his way down the manor stairs and into the dining room. Bruce sat at the head of the table, his brothers sitting on the sides. 

“Hey, Timmy, feeling better?” Dick asked after taking a sip of water. 

“Yeah, much better, cried for no reason, passed out, had a really weird dream, woke up feeling just spiffy” Tim replied sitting down at the table next to Jason who had decided to visit the manor for some reason. 

“What was your dream? Maybe it was your soulmate?” 

“Well unless my soulmate was some dude called Hawkmoth and was terrorizing Paris with his deep voice and his purple butterflies I highly doubt it” Tim said sarcastically before taking a bite of the food Alfred set in front of him. 

“A villain terrorizing Paris with butterflies? You got some weird dreams, Replacement” 

“I’m well aware, Jason, but weird doesn’t even begin to cover it, the whole dream was like a conversation I wasn’t supposed to overhear which just made it weirder” 

“You never cease managing to not make any sense, Drake, what do you mean it was like a conversation you weren’t meant to hear?” 

“I just mean it got into some really obscure topics, like it mentioned Hawkmoth’s soulmate being in a coma and he became a villain so he could heal his soulmate which was weird in and of itself but then the person he talked to didn’t have a soulmate which was like mood but nonetheless really weird,” Tim explained further continuing eating.

“What do you mean not having a soulmate was like mood?” Bruce asked 

Tim froze and he felt every pair of eyes immediately shoot towards him as Tim internally freaked out and called himself an idiot multiple times. “Oh,” Tim said, breathing out deeply “I don’t have a soulmate?” the dining room exploded into noise.

Multiple voices were shouting but all sounded like to Tim was buzzing. Tim began reciting the periodic table in Russian then in Japanese then in Arabic then in French in his head until the buzzing stopped and he finally looked back up to Dick looking at him expectantly like he had asked a question and was waiting for an answer. Turning his head Jason was also looking at him expectantly and so was Damian and turning to see Bruce also looking at him expectantly. A noise of confusion slipped out before he could stop it. 

“We were wondering how you would know you don’t have a soulmate?” 

“I know I don’t have a soulmate because when I was younger I was obsessed about soulmates but like not regular kid obsessed it was to the level where I was probably putting more research into soulmates then I was vigilantes. I looked up every account of soulbonds and every single soulbond that has been proven and had research done and I realized that even the ‘non physical’ soulbonds were still physical. For example if you can’t see colors until you meet your soulmate your eyes just appear gray you can still see but your eyes are as gray-scale as your world before changing when you meet your soulmate. The red string you’re born with a red line on your pinky until you meet your soulmate which then turns gold. I don’t have either of those and I don’t have any of the obvious physical ones and I don’t go anywhere when I sleep and I don’t hear their music and I don’t taste what they taste” 

“But that's not all of the soulbonds” Dick tried to defend against Tim’s declaration 

“Yeah, I wasn’t too convinced about not having a soulmate until Zatara, Zatana, and Dr. Fate all separately asked about my lack of soulmate bond which apparently all magicans can see,” Tim further explained. ‘Even then I wasn’t too convinced but that was three separate times with three separate magicians all of which singled me out immediately, now if we could move on it really isn’t that big of a deal. I just didn’t tell you all because I knew you’d make it one” 

“But you were crying last night?” Dick asked 

“Probably the lack of sleep and or stress it’s not that deep, Dick” Tim countered before continuing eating, finishing quickly and leaving to either go back to sleep or to go and work on cold cases because he had finished all of the work he had to do for the month at Wayne Enterprise. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters in a day? This is insanity and probably will not ever happen again so be happy that it even happened.


	7. Oof that's rough Marinette

Marinette woke up and immediately knew today was going to be a very bad day. Rejecting Hawkmoth’s akuma after telling him she would accept the akuma was stupid even if she now knew how to stop him she still didn’t know if he would send the butterfly to ladybug or not. 

Getting dressed and ready for the school day she packed her sketchbook to see if she could finish Jagged’s final design for his jacket. She had a basic idea but she still needed to figure out all the details and figure out the amount of fabric she’d need. Stuffing her work into her backpack she walked down the stairs to get to the bakery and make herself a very large coffee with several shots of espresso because while she does live in a bakery she also was born to bakers who get up at 3:30 everyday to make all of the bread or at least finish making it. Marinette is only tired because she too wakes up at 3:30 helps make some of the easier breads before going back to bed to get a much needed extra hour which ends up making her late to most of her homeroom classes. 

Taking a large sip Marinette called goodbye to her parents who were dealing with customers. The school wasn’t far away and because of this Marinette still had her large cup of coffee in her hand as she walked through the gate only to have the nectar of the gods splash across her white shirt and pink pants managing to soak both but her jacket even if slightly it was not completely wet to the point of no return. Sighing deeply she threw away the smashed plastic cup that used to hold the only thing keeping her alive. Walking to the bathroom to clean up or at least attempt to get the coffee out before it stains completely. 

She doesn’t know who knocked into her but at this point she didn’t care. Marinette wrapped her jacket around her waist to let herself move better without having to worry about accidentally breaking a stitch. The door to the bathroom closed behind her only to open again a few seconds after. To no one's surprise it was Lila and she looked incredibly smug. Marinette continued to focus on getting the stains out of her jeans.

“Hello, Lila, What is your planned attempt at torture today? After all you may have managed to make me the most hated girl in school what else can you make me? Suicidal? Homicidal?”

Lila made a small noise of surprise before she could stop herself. Marinette looked up at Lila in surprise “What did you never think of the outcomes of bullying someone? Especially calling someone unlovable and soulless? You may think you're the Queen of the school but do you really think that that will last? They’re using you just like they used me only you’re doing it on purpose and are still somehow too dumb to notice.”

“No they aren't. I'm the most popular person in class, hell the whole school!” Lila proclaimed 

“No you are just to stupid to realize that by flaunting your ‘celebrity’ status all you’re doing is making false promises about contacts you don’t have about people’s future you 1. Don’t want to be apart of and 2 don’t care enough about to be honest with” 

“You don’t know anything, you baker’s daughter!” Lila shouted 

“Oh no!” She gasped “You’re using my heritage that I’m proud of as an insult whatever shall I do!” Marinette said in an obviously fake sad tone.

“Oh you’re going to get it,”Lila exclaimed as she stomped off 

“I look forward to it,” Marinette shouted sweetly after Lila before going back to trying to get the stains out. After a few more minutes of trying she stops figuring she could just go back home during lunch to change. 

The bell rang as Marinette stepped into the classroom making her just barely not late. Lila sat next to Alya as usual but much to Marinette’s surprise Lila wasn’t talking. Marinette passed by Lila and was stopped by a hand shooting out of the booth and grabbing her arm quickly pulling her causing her to trip. Falling backwards down the steps of the seats was an experience that Marinette did not wish for anyone to experience. The force of being pulled backwards and to the side would’ve been fine had Lila not dug her claws into her skin causing her nails to scratch deeply across her arm pulling up skin from the force of the pull and consequently the fall. 

Landing on her back she rolled down the classroom steps finally coming to a stop only to sit up steadily as the class watched and some even had the audacity to giggle. The arm that Lila had grabbed had landed behind her and as she felt something wet run down her arm. Marinette raised her arm only to be met with four deep gashes probably made from Lila’s fingernails. Overwhelmed with the pain, Marinette's eyes watered slightly which was seen by one of her classmates and immediately she was made fun of for crying. Her breath shortened as she tried desperately to keep calm about her arm. Her mind started to focus only on the ebbing pain in her arm. Ms. Bustier who should’ve been in the classroom before the bell in Marinette’s opinion came walking in. She got maybe half of the way into the classroom before she yelled at a crying and panicking Marinette to get up and get to her seat and set a good example. 

Marintte stood up slowly calming herself as much as possible before opening her backpack and grabbing her folder of all the things Ms. Bustier had had assigned her after her three days of suspension or at least what she had said the class did which was an entire stack of forms and papers and with her bleeding arm handed it to her teacher before zipping up her backpack and walking out of the room to go to the nurse not bothering to grab a pass. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating yesterday but I was sort of busy! I love reading your comments and theories even if I can't tell you if their true or not!


	8. A White Butterfly

The nurse took one look at Marinette’s arm and immediately called her parents to inform them that their daughter had been assaulted and would need to go to the hospital because the cuts were too deep and they’d need stitches. Marinette silently sat on the cot in the nurse's office and imagined how her parents were reacting. She doubted that they’d let her finish this school year at the school. They'd probably fight the school to let her pick up her work each day and then finish it and turn it in later.

A loud bang and alarms going off signalled an akuma having been formed somewhere close to the school. Sighing Marinette stood up and asked the nurse if she could use the restroom. Her arm was wrapped but she’d definitely need stitches and as the nurse said the wrap is only temporary until they can get her to a hospital in which she’ll be re-wrapped but her arm will no longer be spewing blood like waterfall. 

“Alright Tikki, lets go” 

“Marinette, I cannot in good conscience let you fight with an open wound,” Tikki said. Marinette understood why she wouldn’t let her but this really couldn’t have been a worse time. She was supposed to tell Chat on their shared patrol hat she had done but apparently that plan was out the window. 

“Tikki, please this might be the final fight we can’t draw this out any longer,” Marinette knew that Hawkmoth might contact her and if she did she hoped she would be able to heal his soulmate. “Tikki, this might be a great time to teach me to heal myself and others,” Marinette suggested knowing Tikki was more likely to allow her to transform if she wasn’t currently injured and bleeding out. 

“Close your eyes Marinette feel all of the world around you. Everyone has a soul to heal them. You must allow their soul to cross past the boundaries of the body and allow your soul to help theirs heal. You are at a distinct disadvantage of having no soulmate simply because it is easier to heal by transferring the energy needed via the soulbond but you don’t have one so this will take a lot of your energy and it may take longer for you to gain enough energy to properly summon a lucky charm. If you heal yourself I recommend you go and grab some backup especially if this might be the final fight,” 

Marinette closed her eyes and tried to feel everything. Slowly she felt her own soul and she pushed it into her arm just enough to stop the bleeding but she knew it wouldn’t last very long and the more she tried to heal the more difficult it was to feel anything.

“Marinette, I told you you are at a distinct disadvantage. You just need to stop the bleeding, do not worry about anything else, it can be healed by time, I will allow you to transform now. Thank you for attempting to heal yourself as much as you can before battle but you cannot heal everything and that is okay. Feel free to call upon my power as soon as you are ready,” Tikki said 

“Thank you for teaching me, you might have just stopped a war by gifting me the knowledge of how to heal, Tikki, Spots on,” A flash of light and Marinette was now Ladybug. Climbing out of the bathroom window she swung her yoyo and attached it to the roof of the school, pulling herself up so she was able to see who the unfortunate victim of Hawkmoth was. The not at all unsurprising victim was Lila who was easily recognized by the orange color scheme and hair. The akuma saw Ladybug and charged only to get about a yard away from her before she crumbled down screaming as tears ran down her cheeks from what was assumed pain. Lila reached up towards Ladybug who quickly moved closer to see what was wrong. She might not like Lila but no one deserved to be hurt so extremely as to be vulnerable in akuma form. 

Lila seemed to have something in the hand she reached towards Ladybug with. Lila rolled over taking a harsh breath before screaming again. Lila’s hand reached towards Ladybug’s. She dropped what she was holding onto Ladybug’s hand and the screaming stopped but the harsh breaths and hiccups didn’t. Ladybug looked down at what she had dropped and to her surprise and horror it was a white origami butterfly. It looked like it had writing on it so she quickly unfolded it and read the letter.

‘Dear Ladybug, 

By now you must wish the end of this long and painful fight and I too feel the same. I have heard from an unsuccessful akumatization that you might be capable of healing others. I have an offer that will stop this fight without the fighting needed. My soulmate has recently fallen into disrepair and if you would be so kind as to heal her I will offer you my miraculous in return. If you would also be kind as to heal a second person, the peacock holder, Le paon then I will also offer you the Peacock Miraculous. The akuma delivering this happens to have been slightly injured before akumatization. Her akumatized item is her necklace and to prove you are truly a healer I will be watching to see you heal her in order to be sure you can. 

\- Hawkmoth’

Ladybug slowly set down the note looking over to see the akumatized Lila slowly calming down and taking deeper breaths. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original chapter I wrote for this was too long so I split it as best I could. Sorry it took so long! Thank you for the support.


	9. Two panic attacks in one chapter well color me not surprised that Gabriel Agreste was the cause of both

“Lila, I’m going to reach over and grab your necklace but I’m not going to until you tell me I can, okay?” Ladybug asked, she knew that Lila was panicking especially after having been in so much pain. Ladybug waited until Lila whimpered and then nodded at her. Taking a deep breath Lila spoke up in a hoarse whisper. 

“Okay, you can take it, please take it.” 

Ladybug reached over slowly making sure her hands were in Lila’s sights the whole time. Pulling Lila’s necklace off her head she snapped the cheap metal quickly before swinging her yoyo and capturing the butterfly. She didn’t say her catchphrase she didn’t feel like it would be a good waste of time. Turning to Lila who was crying still, makeup running down her face but Ladybug hardly noticed over the fact that Lila’s arm was most definitely not bent the way it was supposed to be. 

“Do you have a soulmate bond?” Marinette asked, gently taking Lila’s arm trying not to injure it more. 

“Yes, but I haven’t met them yet,” Lila replied shakily 

“That’s okay but this whole process is going to leave us both tired so I’m going to pull on some of your soulmate’s energy so that we can heal it easier,” Holding the arm she closed her eyes and felt first her soul and then Lila’s soul, pulling on the string attached to Lila’s soul a burst of energy shot back. Coaxing Lila’s soul out of her chest and towards her broken arm was difficult but the repeated bursts of energy from Lila’s soulmate made it easier than it was healing her own arm and that was just to stop the bleeding. Finally Ladybug felt Lila’s soul slip and fix the wound slowly but surely. 

Opening her eyes she sees Lila sitting quietly watching her work. Her makeup has rundown her face and she looks like she’s in shock. 

“Can I ask you a few questions regarding who broke your arm?” 

“It was Agreste,” Lila quickly said

“The model?”

“No, the father the designer,” Lila explained “I had done something really mean like meaner than usual and the teacher didn’t do anything about it and it made me more uncomfortable than she usually makes me, so I asked to go to the bathroom and she let me and I was walking to the bathrooms on the east side of the building because I don’t like the ones closer to the classroom. I guess Agreste was having a meeting with the principal but I’m one of his workers I know his schedule and he wasn’t supposed to be here, and I went to go ask him something cause he’s my boss and I want to make it in the fashion world and he just turned to me and grabbed my arm and then it just snapped but I don’t know what happened after my mind went blank, I’m sorry i can’t tell you more,” Lila said beginning to cry again. Ladybug reached around her and pulled her into a deep hug.

“You may not think that what you told me is unimportant but it just solved the whole puzzle, Thank you, Lila, I appreciate it, and I do think you can make it in the fashion world but perhaps you should chose a different method than lying,” Ladybug spoke softly but firmly. She slowly pulled back and looked at Lila in the eyes. “You are a beautiful young lady and you can do anything you set your mind on but I would hate for you to not be able to do something you love because of something you lied about,” 

“Thank you, Ladybug, I’m sorry for what I said to you before,”

“It’s okay, that was my fault for jumping to conclusions about you. Now, I have to go fight someone with a giant moth fetish,” Ladybug said standing up and giving a small salute before swinging away. 

Pulling herself through the bathroom window she transformed before attempting to further heal her arm. She needed it to be able to be patched by the nurse so she didn’t have to worry about stitches. As much as Marinette wished it could be peaceful she really should’ve known from the beginning not to negotiate with terrorists. Marinette had originally wanted this to end with no fighting but now she was on a warpath. Walking out of the bathroom she saw the nurse waiting to check on her again. Apparently the nurse seemed to think it was a miracle that Marinette was healing so quickly she was now able to treat her wounds without having to give her stitches but she did recommend going to a doctor to give her pain meds. Nodding Marinette left the nurse’s office and hurried home to get the miraculous for her temp heroes.

Marinette was usually able to keep Ladybug split as to not draw attention to her but instead of tripping on her own feet Marinette was walking quickly and with confidence people were moving out of her way as she walked. Going up to her room she grabbed several miraculous and stuffed them in her bag. 

She needed to get all the temporary heroes up without Hawkmoth being aware which also means that she has to reveal her identity to every temporary hero. Luka was the first to receive his miraculous, the snake. He ended up coming with Marinette to continue planning on the way to Kagami’s. Kagami was happy to help and received the dragon miraculous, she joined both Marinette and Luka on their quest to give out the miraculous. 

Next up was Nathaniel,he had come to her and told her he believed her and that he supports her but is afraid of being outcast, Marinette understood that especially since bullies tended to go after friends and soulmates to get at the victim. He would be a great fox and if only temporary after all his creativity is great with weaving illusions. Nathaniel ‘s house happened to hit two birds with one stone as Marc was also there and was going to be given the goat miraculous. 

Marinette felt like she needed more help but she didn’t have anyone else she trusted. She brought everyone back to the bakery before transforming and beginning to explain what each miraculous does. Sending a text to Chat about Marinette allowing them to use her room as a planning room for their final fight. She texted him that they would explain when he got here. Chat came through the balcony not even twenty minutes later. 

“M’lady… and others?” Chat asked curiously 

“Were planning out our final attack against Hawkmoth, we finally found out who he is and he needs to be taken out,” 

“Who?” Chat asked curiously 

“Gabriel Agreste,” Ladybug said firmly “Lila was akumatized today against her will after Gabriel broke her arm, he used her pain and confusion as a way to akumatize her easily,” Chat looked shocked as if he could have never expected it. “I also know that Gabriel Agreste has a certain soulbond that Hawkmoth also happens to have, he fits and he’s doing the whole terrorism thing as a way to get him soulmate back from a magical coma.” 

Chat’s face filtered through so many different emotions at once it was almost like he couldn’t comprehend it and that was okay. “I-” Chat tried. Ladybug turned to the other heroes and told them to continue planning; she was going to go talk with Chat in private on the balcony. 

“Chat, are you okay?” Ladybug asked softly.

“I know that we aren’t supposed to know each other’s identity but oh my god,” Chat took a deep breath and then started speaking again, “Hawkmoth’s my dad, he was right there the whole time and I was so convinced that it couldn’t be him that I messed up the investigation so badly that this could have been over ages ago if it wasn’t for me,” Chat confessed. Ladybug went still for a moment and Chat froze so quickly he would better be compared to ice than human. 

Ladybug walked slowly towards Chat and Chat began to back up slowly and scrunch in on himself. Ladybug backed up slightly and raised her hands in the most non threatening way she could think of. “Chat, I’m not going to hurt you, it’s not your fault you trusted him,” Ladybug told him. “It’s Hawkmoth’s for deciding to abuse his power as not only a holder of the butterfly miraculous but also as a father, for that he won’t go unpunished.” 

“I-I can’t,” Chat struggled, his arms wrapped around each other, his clawed suit tightened on his arm in what might’ve been an attempt to ground himself. Ladybug stepped forward slightly.

“Can I give you a hug?” Ladybug asked and didn’t step closer until Chat nodded. Pulling Chat close to her she hugged him firmly and didn’t pull back until he did. “If you don’t think you can fight him you don’t have to, okay? I won’t force you to fight your own father, just tell me and I can have you sit out and cover communications.”

“I-I can cover communications?” Chat asked 

“If you want to, but you don’t have to, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do, so do you want to sit out and cover communications between the team?”

“I’ll cover communications, please.” Chat said quickly like he was afraid that the option wouldn’t stand if he didn’t accept it immediately” 

“Okay, do you want to stay out here for a while or do you want to meet everyone else?” 

“I’m going to stay out here for a little bit but I’ll be in a few minutes it's just a lot to process,” Ladybug nodded before walking back into Marinette’s room and leaving Chat on the balcony for some air. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told myself I wouldn't give Lila a redemption arc and then I turned around spit in my own face and wrote one on accident.


	10. The Miraculous Team plan to commit both arson and murder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW;  
> mentions of Suicide, Arson, and Murder

The group were sitting on the floor with a printed out map of Paris they got from somewhere unknown to Ladybug. Nathaniel and Kagami seem to be talking to each other in great detail with Marc adding things. Luka seemed to be making notes of the plan to share with Ladybug and Chat. Marinette detransformed since she had no need to contact Chat through her yoyo.

“Chat is going to be on communications,” Marinette announced, sitting down in between Marc and Luka. Luka turned the notes so that Ladybug could see what they’d come up with. 

“Nathaniel was able to find the blueprints for the Agreste Mansion,” Luka told Marinette before pointing to another paper that was set on the ground that had multiple red pen marks covering a few certain rooms. “We have a set plan to flank around the mansion starting at 10 pm so we need to be meeting as civilians before we start patrolling to get in, beat him, and then get out.” Marinette nodded 

“If Chat’s on Communications he may be able to guide us through the mansion and to his father’s room,” Marinette said before circling another room on the blueprint. “This is Gabriel’s office where Adrien once mentioned finding a miraculous book.” 

“Throwing this out there, just to put it on the table, if we murder Gabriel and then search the house for the miraculous technically, that would solve both the abuse and the hawkmoth problem,” Marc said fidgeting with a pen before looking up to see everyone looking at him in concern. “I’m not saying we have to I’m saying its an option, have the black cat kwami smack him and then dispose of the body we can make an illusion of him committing suicide and then bada bing bada boom, and it would be explained as a hermit tortured soul designer taking his life after years of living without his soulmate” 

“I’d like to not have to commit a murder tonight Marc,” Marinette exasperatedly told him “Like good process but I’d hope we don’t have to do that.”

Kagami seemed to be thinking about it still somewhat thinking it through, “I’m not saying we should but technically it would be the easiest way to rid Paris of an evil moth,” she said slowly 

Marinette was rapidly losing control of this situation and looked over to Nathaniel in hopes that maybe he would rein in his soulmate. “They do have a point,” her head turned so fast she would’ve been more concerned if she wasn’t more focused on the fact that Luka was okay with murdering Gabriel Agreste. “I mean it would give Adrien a reason to quit modeling and be placed in a safer environment and it would end hawkmoth’s rein quicker than a full battle.” 

Chat of course choose that moment to walk into the room. “You can detransform no need to stay in suit if we're going to be planning for the next few hours,” Marinette said and Chat transformed in Adrien. The whole room froze besides Adrien and Marinette.

“Mari-hime, you did not inform us that Adrien was Chat Noir and I feel like that would’ve been important information considering what we were just talking about,” Kagami said as Adrien sat down in between her and Nathaniel. The other nodded in agreement. 

“Oh so now your against murder,” Marinette joked.

“I’m not saying I’m against that plan but maybe we should run it past his son,” Nathaniel said leaning against Marc. 

“What plan?” Adrien asked 

“Well, we were thinking of murdering you father,” Marc blurted out “I know it’s a stupid plan but that’s all it is a plan” 

Adrien sunk down slightly into himself “If we were gonna do that we could just find the miraculous and then trap him in his stupid butterfly room that he probably has somewhere before setting the house aflame, Father doesn’t like the look of fire alarms and sprinklers so he doesn’t have any,” Adrien quietly said 

“If you’re honestly okay with us murdering your father then we can go through with it but, we won’t do it unless you’re absolutely sure and even then you can stay on communications and just guide us through the mansion, okay?” Marinette asked Adrien.

“I’ll stay on communications but I’m okay with us murdering Hawkmoth even if that means killing my father,” Adrien admitted “I don’t want anyone to be afraid to express their emotions like I have been growing up and most people have been the last three years” 

“Adrien, you don’t have to be okay with us killing your father,” Nathaniel told him.

“No, I’m not one hundred okay with killing him but I think it would be best for both me and all of Paris if he weren’t able to hurt anyone anymore.” 

“Alright if you're sure then let's get started on the plan to kill your father and burn down your house,” Marc said before giggling slightly. “I’m so sorry it’s just god, I suggested that as a joke but literally all of us were so prepared to murder your Father, Adrien.” 

Laughing slowly spread throughout the room before calming down slightly in order to start planning. In only an hour or two they have a fairly comprehensive plan to murder Gabriel Agreste.

“Okay so if a pair go through Adrien’s window we can sneak to the office without being seen, a pair of us will have to go through the back and the last pair will go to the control room and start a fire there,” Marinette explained pointing at the three places. “We need to find the miraculous first before we set the fires and then we can use illusions of Gabriel and Natalie starting the fires in case someone looks closer than they should. Adrien will be able to guide us through the mansion.” She said easily before pointing at Adrien. “Adrien call your father and say you were invited to a sleepover make sure to mention that Kagami and Luka will be there if he asks where feel free to tell him my house he’s been trying to akumatize me for awhile and won’t think about sending you if he thinks he can get you to accidentally akumatize one of your friends.” 

Adrien walked out of the room before coming back in a few minutes later and saying that his father approved of the company and said he was allowed to stay. 

They spent the next few minutes transforming into their hero costume and connecting all of the coms that Ladybug summoned to each other and finally to Marinette’s computer which Adrien would be in charge of. They also decided on hero names and introduced each other as heroes properly. Marc now Pan leaned against Nathaniel now Renard Rogue which Pan refused to call him and stuck with Ren as a nickname. Luka changed his name to Naga after having been found out by Hawkmoth and Kagami now Draken after she too was found to be Ryuko. 

“We’re all connected and we should stay connected even after we detransform right?” Ladybug asked Adrien.

“You should yeah,” Adrien responded

“Okay great,” Ladybug said before detransforming. “I’m hungry, who wants to go get food and then commit arson?” The answers were quick and the room was bright as everyone detransformed because in truth they were all starving, planning murder is hard work after all.

“We could go to the Kosher place down by the Louvre, it opened up a while ago and Nathaniel and I were planning on going soon?” Marc suggested. It was met with an overall yes and they grabbed their phones, hid the map, notes, and blueprints and then they were off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marc; jokingly suggest murder  
> Literally everyone on the team; I am very okay with that  
> Adrien; suggests arson  
> Literally everyone on the team; I am very okay with that


	11. Happy Memories and Alibis to make

Walking down the Paris cobble streets they laughed at jokes quietly and enjoyed each other's company. Finally making their way to the restaurant they waited to be seated before ordering. They were seated after only a few minutes.

“Adrien I know you said you were going to be having a sleepover but you didn’t say anything about going to pick up clothing?” Luka asked Adrien, pulling the attention of the group.

“I told my father to send Natalie with a bag of approved clothing but he said Natalie was sick so I’ll have to run by and get a bag before we head back to Marinette’s”

“We’d be happy to go with you if you want us to Adrien, just to make sure you don’t forget anything while you pack” Kagami said

“Alright, let’s eat and then we’ll head on over, we should be back no later than maybe 7 which will give us plenty of time if we want to go anywhere.” Adrien answered before the waiter came over to get the orders. The rest of dinner was relatively quiet as they steered clear of talking about what would happen later. 

Walking to Adrien’s house was somber as they all knew the house wouldn’t be standing for much longer or at least in one piece. The gate opened as soon as Adrien pressed the button and the large doors opened relatively easy. His father stood at the top of the stairs looking down at the group. 

“Hello Father, I’m here to grab a bag of approved clothing for tomorrow since I’ll be at a sleepover,” Adrien said, his voice a monotone the group had never heard before.

“Ah yes of course, Well I won’t keep you longer than necessary but, I’m making sure you’re aware that you have a photo shoot tomorrow morning at 9 and another at 12. Seeing as Natalie is sick she wouldn’t be able to remind you so I had to.” 

“Thank you for the reminder Father,” Adrien said 

“Do remember that even when you aren’t at home the rules still stand,” Gabriel said before turning and leaving 

Adrien took a deep breath before beginning to climb the stairs to the main part of the house. Adrien opened the door to his room before grabbing a duffle he had underneath his bed and packing it full of things. Grabbing multiple photos of him and a woman he gently placed them into his bag before walking to his closet. Opening the door Adrien grabbed several pairs of clothing before finally grabbing a large book and then closing the duffle.

“Okay let’s go I can’t be here any longer,” Adrien said leaving the room quickly the others stayed relatively quiet. 

Leaving the house quickly Adrien didn’t look back. His friends follow behind waiting for him to slow down and wait for his shoulders to relax before attempting to talk to him. He doesn’t talk until they get back to the bakery where he sets down his bag and sits down on the chaise in Marinette’s room taking deep breaths and steadying himself. The others wait for him not impatiently but in a way that makes him feel like he belongs. When Adrien finally steadies himself and his shoulders relax the others are sitting around him in support.

“I think the botanical gardens are still open. Do you want to go and hang there for a bit and then come back and make cookies?” Marinette asks, she has the botanical garden hours open on her phone. When the others agree she grabs a bag and she puts her sketchbook in before grabbing a small watercolor palette that she’d been meaning to use. Marc grabs his journal and Nathaniel grabs his own sketchbook. Marinette offers to carry both in her bag and they carefully put them with her stuff in the bag. 

The gardens are beautiful and Marinette is sketching moments after they enter. She is overwhelmed with ideas that had been blocked off for weeks. Designing multiple outfits including dresses and jackets she wanders through the gardens the group had split up somewhat so Marinette was alone. 

She contemplated what she was going to do tonight. What they were going to do tonight. She wished she didn’t have to do this but as much as she wanted to end this peacefully she knew that it wouldn’t happen as soon as she saw Lila as an akuma doubled over screaming in pain. She just wished that a group of children didn’t have to fight a battle against a terrorist. As she looked down to continue drawing she was confused to see teardrops on her sketchbook. She wiped her eyes knowing it was probably just her disdain for having to do this and her need for therapy that she wouldn’t be getting until she finally left Paris to properly heal the wounds of battle. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marinette crying at the end of this chapter does not have anything to do with her soulmate it has everything to do with the fact that she's about to murder and commit arson and has been suppressing all emotions or 3 years with no therapist to help her.


	12. The Miraculous Team commit both arson and murder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW  
> Murder,Arson,mentions of throwing up

The group met up after an hour of walking around the gardens. They went back to the bakery and Marinette pulled out the baking supplies for classic chocolate chip cookies. The group worked in tandem to make cookies which led to a wonderful musical as the music they set in the background for them to work ended up blasting pop songs. Laughing as she put the cookie trays into the oven. Looking at the counter near the speakers where the kwamis sat talking to each other. Luka and Kagami screeched a high note with Marc and Nathaniel cheering and Adrien looking through Marinette’s phone to see what the next song will be so he’s prepared to sing it as badly as possible. Going upstairs after pulling out the cookies they grabbed a bunch of snacks and brought them upstairs to prepare to make fun of the Ladybug and Chat Noir movie that was horrendously edgy and horribly acted. 

Marc threw popcorn at the screen in response to Ladybug being afraid of Chat Noir because she was scared of cats. “Boo! That completely disregards all of the actual interactions. Horrible writing!” He shouted. The others laughed as he continued yelling at the movie for its bad writing. 

Finally the clock struck 10. Taking a deep breath they all transformed and before they left Marinette opened the box again and gave Adrien the horse miraculous in case anything goes wrong. Leaving the house and traveling through the skies of Paris. Pan and Renard Rouge snuck in with a well placed illusion before making their way to the control room. Naga and Draken set to go through the back and find the miraculous. Ladybug went through Adrien’s room. It was late enough that the cover of darkness was enough to keep them from being seen. 

Making her way to the office of Gabriel Agreste she opened the painting like Adrien said and to her surprise there sat the peacock miraculous. Grabbing it along with the book she searched around the secret shelf pulling down the books only for a keypad to make an appearance. Hitting the buttons randomly and hoping her luck would open it to where she needed to go. The door opened not to Hawkmoth’s lair but a repository. Walking through she saw a large arched roof and a catwalk. Slowly making her way through she stopped when she saw a glass coffin. 

“Chat, can you describe your mother to me, like what she looked like?” Ladybug asked as she approached the coffin to see a beautiful blonde woman. 

“She was blonde, she had green eyes, and she always wore her hair to the side, Why?” ladybug matched the woman's features. Focusing on the woman’s soul she saw two bonds leading out. The only problem was that if she had a soul then she was alive so what was she doing in a coffin.

“I was asking because I just came across a blonde woman in a glass coffin, only problem is I checked her soul and it's still there meaning she's alive,” Ladybug said before prying the coffin open. “I’m gonna see if I can heal her but if I end up wasting my energy and fainting then tell Luka to redo and inform you so you can stop me.” Putting her hands on the woman’s chest she focused on grabbing enough energy from the emotional tattoo bond she had with Gabriel. 

Pulling as much energy as she could and forcing it to heal the woman's soul because it wasn’t like anything was broken on the outside it was her soul that was damaged. Pushing and pulling the soul like dough until the crack that had resulted as a way for the miraculous to heal itself. Ladybug is flooded with memories of everything that was important in the woman’s life including the affair with her second soulmate, the assistant. In a final push Ladybug was thrown back slightly as the woman groaned and opened her eyes. 

“Where am I,” She asked Ladybug who was talking to Chat about using the horse miraculous to come and get her. 

“We're currently in a room in the Agreste mansion which we found while searching for the Butterfly Miraculous,” Ladybug answered her before a portal opened next to her and a man came out. “This is Chat he’s going to be taking you outside the mansion and somewhere safe. You can trust him.” 

The woman nodded and walked through the portal that Chat had made. Ladybug was left alone in the repository. Walking back she tuned into the other teams. Pan and Renard Rouge seem to be doing okay but Naga and Draken seemed to have come into an issue. 

“Naga, Draken, report,” Ladybug said, making her way out of the repository and back into the manor. 

“Gabriel seems to have collapsed suddenly,” Naga said before being cut off slightly by Draken.

“We have found the Butterfly Miraculous and have taken it,” Ladybug hummed at that.

“Check all the rooms we don’t want anyone we don't want getting hurt,” Ladybug said making her way to Naga and Draken. Finally getting there she saw that Gabriel had been stripped of most of his energy healing the woman and was in a coma. Well that makes sure that he can’t get out at least Ladybug thought to herself. “Is there anyone else in the building?” She said into her com. 

“We found the assistant but it looks like she’s sick,” Naga reported.

‘I’m coming to heal her, Chat get ready for another pickup,” Ladybug told them as she made her way onto the assistant's room. Seeing she had a bond to The woman which means that this will be infinitely more difficult because she needed to use small bursts of her own soul instead of just grabbing their soulmates energy and fixing it. Carefully maneuvering her soul to force the assistant’s to fix itself. Struggling slightly she manages to get the soul back into one piece. Memories flood her and she sees the assistant meeting the woman and pure bliss until the woman falls into a coma and the assistant is now willing to work with Hawkmoth to get her back because she knows he knows where the woman is. The assistant wakes up and Ladybug calls for pickup. 

The portal opens and Chat jumps through before grabbing the assistant and taking her through again. That should be everyone, Gabriel is known for not letting people near him Ladybug thought. “Pan check the cameras that’s everyone correct?” 

“Yes, Ladybug, there’s no one else but us,” Pan answered after a few seconds.

“Alright, light her up,” She said as she walked down to the entrance where Chat would be doing their final pickup. She heard a small laugh ring out over the coms and giggled knowing it was just Pan and his obsession with fire once again. She knew that normally a fire would be reported and put out quickly but she also knew that because of the lack of fire alarms and the fact that it was coming close to 11 no one would see the blaze until well into the morning and by then the mansion would be just a scorch on the ground. 

Rounding the corner she came to the stairs where she saw both Naga and Draken already there. Pan and Renard Rouge were coming through from the hallway downstairs. Calling Chat for pickup they waited for a minute and the portal opened Chat jumped out confirmed that it was too the bakery and they walked through.The portal shut and they all transformed trying to get out of the suit as quickly as possible. 

Marinette ran to the bathroom as quickly as possible before throwing up everything she’d eaten tonight. She felt disgusting and gross. Stripping down she washed herself until her skin was red from irritation. A knock on the door finally made her realize she was irritating her skin to the point it might start bleeding. Turning off the water she grabbed the towel off of the wall and opened the door. 

“Are you okay?” it was Luka and honestly she was not okay in the slightest. 

“No, but the shower’s open to anyone who wants to use it,” Marinette’s voice was hoarse and her eyes were full of tears. 

“Okay, just go upstairs, we have a movie on and we made some small snacks,” Luka’s voice was soothing. She walked upstairs as Luka got ready for his shower. She felt everyone needed a shower after what they did. Opening the door to her room she climbed through and grabbed pajamas to change into. Her skin was still irritated but she didn’t care, throwing on the pajamas. The rest of the team seem to be watching the movie but waiting for their turn in the bathroom. 

“Where are the snacks?” Marinette asked she didn’t want to eat but judging from the fact that she just threw up everything she’d eaten before she did need something in her stomach. Marc pointed at the desk and there was a plate of sandwiches. She grabbed one and nibbled on it slowly trying to make sure she didn’t throw up again. 

Slowly but surely everyone went and showered coming back with red skin and empty stomachs. The team was no longer laughing or smiling. She leaned against the team trying to grasp for sleep. She wished she didn’t have to do what she did. She wished she didn’t have to pull everyone into this plot. Feeling herself gag at the thought of what she did she swallowed hard and then took a sip of water to get the taste out of her mouth. God, she can’t wait to get out of Paris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've gotten some comments on the mental health of the character's and how unhealthy the plan is and that's kind of the point. The team and especially Marinette are self destructing. Marinette has an escape plan however, because of Hawkmoth if she wanted to leave she couldn't so the only thing that mattered was that he is gone. Please understand that what the team and Marinette are doing is not in any form good however keep in mind that they have not been allowed to feel negative in anyway for fear of becoming Hawkmoth's lackey. A cornered animal will lash out and that applies to people as well.


	13. Tim is not having a good time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW  
> mentions of throwing up

Today was going surprisingly well for Tim. He was doing fantastic if you asked him. He finally slept and in fact he slept in. He was meeting his friends at the Gotham skate park and then heading over to the arcade a wonderful day was planned and Tim was excited and happy even. They eventually decided on pizza for dinner before they headed back to their own cities. Dinner was nice and he loved seeing his friends. 

After dinner his friends left he was picked up by Alfred. It was dark out but it was Gotham so it was always dark out. Tim watched the city as he was driven home. Finally getting out of the car he opened the front door and took off his shoes and jacket. He wanted to go upstairs but got maybe halfway to the stairs before he gagged and ran to the bathroom and spilled out what was once a hawaiian pizza. Alfred seemed to have followed him to the bathroom.

“Master Timothy, are you okay? Alfred asked 

“Yeah, I think it was something I ate, I should be good, I’m going to take a shower, can you make me something to eat so I don’t go to bed with an empty stomach,” Tim answered back before standing up. 

“Of course Master Timothy,” Alfred said before walking off. His footsteps were heavy which was a very fascinating part of Alfred he knew he lived with and worked for a bunch of paranoid jerks and consciously made his footsteps louder so he didn’t end up startling any of them. Tim walked up the stairs and made it to his bedroom where he stripped and took a quick shower to wash away the feeling of puking. It’s not that Tim got any on himself but it was the act that he thought was gross and disgusting. 

Zoning out he once again was hit with very weird daydreams. He shoved it off to his imagination playing tricks on him. His imagination was very creative he thought as he saw two women hide their soulbond from one of the woman’s other soulmates. It was honestly kind of interesting he had to give himself that but also very sad. Getting out of the shower he grabbed a random old shirt and pants and put them off as he tried to piece together the whole story his imagination seemed to be feeding into. 

Alfred finally knocked on the door with food and he grabbed it from Alfred before putting on a movie to fall asleep to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know its a short chapter but it's important to the plot. I wouldn't write and post it if it wasn't.


	14. Adrien cries and Lila apologizes properly

Morning came too early for Marinette. Fire sirens spread through the streets as they raced to what Marinette presumed to be the Agreste Mansion. Shaking the rest of the team up they all quickly got dressed before running down to fein surprise about the Mansion being burned down. 

People crowded the streets around the burnt down mansion but quickly let the group through at the sight of Adrien. Making their way through the crowd Marinette and the team stopped as they saw Gabriel Agreste’s body carried away in a body bag. Marinette saw Adrien stop in his tracks his breathing becoming unstable, His eyes blew wide and tears began to form. Pulling him into a tight hug the team circled around them to obscure the videos being taken. 

Adrien’s breathing slowly leveled out and only then did he pull away. “So it’s over? That’s it?” He asked quietly. 

“That’s it, you’re safe, Paris is safe,” Marinette whispered back. She said looking back to the mansion’s flames slowly being put out. “We’ll make the announcement that Hawkmoth was defeated tonight,” She told him. “Now, let’s go, it’s not good for your health to be here.”

Adrien nodded before the team surrounded him so he could walk away without having a phone pushed into his face for an interview. School was going to be hell Marinette thought as she walked next to Adrien working to push the crowd away. The walk back to the bakery was silent. There were no jokes being cracked and certainly no smiles. Pushing the doors to the bakery open they walked through and into the back to get to Marinette’s room. Grabbing multiple different pastries for everyone’s breakfast. 

Walking back up to her room she sat Adrien down and wrapped him in a blanket. “I have to go to school or Lila will manage to get me expelled but you can stay here and I’ll come back for lunch and then we’ll make the announcement that Hawkmoth has been defeated, okay?” she asked as she shoved a cheese danish into his hands before grabbing her backpack. She then left Adrien in her room before walking with Marc and Nathaniel to school while Kagami and Luka walk to their school. 

Walking through the doors of the school she sighed seeing that Lila is surrounded by the class. Groaning Marinette assumes it’s more of Lila’s lies and walking through the courtyard and towards the locker room. The door opens soon after and Marinette has to keep herself from cussing Lila out because that foot step pattern is Lila’s. 

“Uh, Marinette can I talk to you?” Lila sounded nervous which she generally never did.

“Lila, you’d do it even if I didn’t want you to do so just talk,” Marinette said as she continued grabbing notebooks and binders for her pre lunch classes. 

“I wanted to say sorry,” Lila said and Marinette stopped. “I shouldn’t have lied and I’m sorry I turned the class against you for just telling them the truth.” 

“I want to say I forgive, Trust me I really do, but you have to remember that for months you made my life living hell, I’m glad you finally apologized, I accept that you apologized but I can’t forgive you for what you did,” Marinette said before picking up her bag to walk away. “I shouldn’t be the only one you apologize to for either, I understand that you’re probably scared of what you think will happen to you but you shouldn’t be after all, your mom’s an ambassador, they wouldn’t dare touch you,” Marinette told her before walking to class. 

Alya was waiting at the door presumably for Adrien to get an interview. 

“Marinette do you know where Adrien is, I want to ask for an interview,” Alya asked, 

‘Yes I know where he is, but I don’t think he’ll want to do an interview about his house burning down and losing the only family he had left,” Marinette said as she walked past to get to the back where she wouldn’t be bothered anymore. Alya paused for a moment contemplating before putting her phone down and walking back to her seat. 

The day passed quickly and lunch was about to begin. Marinette packed her bag quickly after all she had to get back to Adrien. Nathaniel and Marc met her in the courtyard to go and get food for Adrien. She hoped that Adrien would be okay and wondered where he would end up. If his mother decides to come back into the public eye he’d possibly join her or he could end up at his cousin’s. Either way he’d probably won’t be living in Paris which Marinette thinks will be a good thing.


	15. The Announcement

The announcement that Hawkmoth had been defeated had surged Paris into a full blown festival. Many photos were taken by the citizens of the newest temporary heroes who had apparently been the ones to help Ladybug take out Hawkmoth. The day was announced as a new Paris holiday in honor of the Parisian heroes. The rest of the school day was canceled and the city of paris could be compared to a festival. 

Art was quickly made and posted on multiple social media. The news and heroes were trending on everything within minutes of the news being announced. Hundreds of tweets, pictures, and Tiktoks were seen by everyone all over the world. The world was shocked that there had been a terrorist in Paris for years and no one outside of France knew until after he had been defeated. 

The celebration had many people breaking down in the streets after years of being scared of being unhappy. Hawkmoth had been defeated but that wasn’t the only news that had been given Ladybug and all of the heroes were retiring as the city was now safe and the stolen artifact used to torment the city had been returned to the correct authorities aka Ladybug herself. 

Ladybug and the temporary heroes disappeared shortly after the announcement was made. The team had detransformed privately before meeting up to partake in the celebrations as civilians. The class had decided that they would be all meeting up to celebrate and since Nathaniel and Adrien were still in the class chat the team decided to meet up with the class. 

Arriving at the meet up something was immediately wrong the energy was off. Lila had seen the team meet up and had walked over to Alya and told her something with tears in her eyes. Alya exploded but not at the team like Marinette thought would happen. Alya started shouting at Lila who was now crying but wasn’t deafening herself like she usually did. 

“I’m sorry I was going to tell you but by that point I had already seen what kind of monsters Hawkmoth made and I didn’t want to accidentally akumatize you. I didn’t mean for it to go this far but it did. I’m so sorry you don’t have to forgive me I was awful and I shouldn’t have added more lies on what I already had lied about and I’m so sorry at first I was just trying to make friends and then I couldn’t correct them because I didn’t want you to become a monster,” Lila cried 

“I trusted you!” Alya screamed, bringing the attention of the rest of the class. The team had already seen enough and started to leave the meet up not wanting to deal with all the classmates apologizing to Marinette. Marinette guided the team away. The day was supposed to be full of happiness. She didn’t want it ruined by her classmates. 

She shared crepes with her team and they talked nonsense. They lived in the moment for once. They didn’t feel the need to plan fifteen steps ahead to feel safe. They laughed together and finally they felt free. Marinette left the festival early she did have a deadline with jagged’s jacket and the festival was plenty enough inspiration. 

Hyperfocusing she pulled out her fabrics and set the music on the loudest possible setting. Sewing and Sewing before her maman knocked on the door before opening it and seeing Marinette hadn’t noticed she set the food on the desk where the designs were so she’d see it. Closing the door and heading back to the bakery she felt happy that her daughter had seemed to find her inspiration again. 

Hours passed and Fireworks were shooting off into the sky and the celebrations had only died down slightly. The jacket was almost done; it only needed its detailing and embroidering finished. Marinette sat on her floor and embroidered the jacket until she found it was perfect. Tikki was doing something or other she didn’t care about. She was focused on finishing the jacket. 

Dawn came and Marinette had finally finished embroidering the jacket. Stepping back she looked at her creation. It was a blue jacket with the Agreste mansion on fire embroidered on the back. It had sequins fireworks and embroidered photos that Marinette had taken from the festival yesterday. She sent a photo of the finished design to jagged and quickly ate the food her Maman had placed near her designs hours before when she was hyper focused on sewing. Checking the time she had been working on this jacket for hours and she hadn’t noticed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I hadn't posted in a bit but depression do be hitting with a different type a bat. I'm going to be time skipping just a bit after this chapter simply because keeping Marinette in Paris isn't really allowing her to properly grow as a character.


	16. Gotham

Marinette found that days pass quickly when Hawkmoth isn’t attacking every other day. Adrien had been adopted by his aunt who was also housing his mother and Natalie. Sadly because Adrien’s aunt lived in England he was sent off rather quickly. Plagg had sadly been given over to Marinette as she was the Guardian. 

Marinette had plans for the summer which mostly included moving to Gotham as quickly as possible and starting what she decided would be called Ladybug’s Bakery. She’d run her plans by her parent’s who had at first fought with her over the name before deciding that they did like the tribute to the Parisian hero. Her room had been mostly packed into boxes which would be sent over after she had the keys to the bakery she was starting. 

Doodling in her sketchbook she counted down the seconds until the end of the school year. Ms. Bustier was giving her final goodbye for the school year to her class and Marinette was pointedly not paying her any attention. Marinette only started paying attention when Ms. Bustier started to ask the students what their plans for the summer was. Apparently most of them were just chilling at home and interning for the summer. When it got to Marinette she tried to be as vague as possible. 

“I’m moving,” Marinette said quickly, the class gasped in shock that she was moving and didn’t tell them. 

“Where are you moving?” Ms. Bustier asked, trying to sound polite but just sounding forced. 

“United States,” She replied curtly, not looking up from her notebook. Before Ms. Bustier could ask any further the bell rang and Marinette practically flew from the classroom rushing to get to her house so she could grab her bags for her flight. 

The flight left at 6 which gave Marinette enough time to make and have dinner with her parents for the last time in Paris and say goodbye to the team who promised they would visit. Marinette packed her carry on backpack with her charger and laptop before stuffing the miraculous box into it and covering it with a hoodie. 

The plane ride to Gotham was exciting seeing as she had heard of it’s rampant crime. She hadn’t slept the best as of late but Marinette strongly believes it’s the lack of villain fights at the dead of night. Playing on her phone she texts Adrien who had apparently found his soulmate in England. Having to beg for details was not a good look on Marinette but nonetheless she did. Adrien’s soulmate was an American boy who had been visiting England for his summer vacation. Marinette had to beg Adrien for a picture of him and his soulmate. 

Finally having gotten a picture of the boy she got to work finding everything she could about him. She wanted to make sure that Adrien got the respect he deserved and if she had to threaten his soulmate to make sure it happened she would. The photo she was sent was of a teenager just a bit shorter than Adrien and had wild red hair. She laughed quietly to herself as she texted him that gingers have no souls. 

Reverse image searching she found his name and then she found his cousin’s insta because it was under his actual name where she found his insta because he’d been tagged in a full family photo. She had gained everyone in the family's instas and through that she found where Adrien’s soulmate went to school and where he lived. She quickly followed Adrien’s soulmates insta and dmed him. Adrien apparently had told him about his friend Marinette who would probably be dming him soon because the response was immediate. Before responding she texted Adrien to record his soulmates reaction. 

‘Hello, your Adrien’s soulmate?’

‘Yes, Is this Adrien’s friend?’

‘So he told you about me?’ 

‘He warned me about how his friend was probably going to give me shovel talk,” 

‘Well he was right about the shovel talk. Anyway I just wanted to tell you that if you hurt him then I will beat you within an inch of your life,’ 

‘That doesn’t sound pleasant,’

“No it doesn’t I imagine your cousin Wally would be very sad about your almost death,’

‘I don’t know about that’

‘Well what about your best friend Tim or maybe Kon?’

‘How do you know them?’

‘Kon posted a picture of your hang out in Gotham a few weeks ago and tagged both of you,’

‘I-’

‘I’m going to leave you with the fact that I can and will find you if you even think about hurting Adrien,’ Marinette then texted Adrien asked for the reaction video. What he sent back was a beautiful reaction video which featured Adrien’s soulmate looking very confused but similarly frightened.

“Adrien, when you said that your friend was going to give me shovel talk you failed to mention that she was scary and would find both my family and my friends social medias in less than 5 minutes,” He said before looking fondly at Adrien who was giggling his ass off. “So not crash dude”

“Well you can have your friends give me shovel talk then as payback,” Adrien asked from behind the camera. 

“Alright sure, Adrien,” Bart said before the video cut off. 

Marinette put her phone away as the plane landed resigning to prod Adrien for more details later. The plane landed and Marinette got off the plane quickly grabbing her suitcase. She decided to only bring one suitcase because it was Gotham and she could always go back and get anything she's forgotten. 

The city was gloomy but she felt it was exactly what she needed after Paris. Pulling up a map she began to walk pulling her suitcase behind her to the shop location. She had had it remodeled along with the 2 bedroom apartment above it. It’d be easy money to rent out the second bedroom while she worked on setting up the bakery. 

She finally met the person with the keys and opened up her apartment door. She swore she would cry from happiness. She quickly set up her bedroom and bathroom before grabbing the miraculous box and setting it down as gently as possible. She let the kwami out as she grabbed her backpack and set her laptop down on the bed. 

She needed to redecorate the bakery so she could open as soon as possible. She sent a text to her friends that she got there fine before looking online to see the nearest hardware store so she could get to work bright and early tomorrow after she had slept off her jetlag. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is in Gotham, Adrien found his soulmate, and a roommate may be in order. So I'm think I throw Jason to her as a roommate and potential friend since she do be needing some of those.
> 
> You can't convince me that Marinette wouldn't be the one to immediately find everything they can about a person if she thinks it would help her friends. She had a wall of Adrien like yes he was her classmate but she's probably well versed in social media stalking. Plus Bart is friends with Kon and Tim and related to Wally who is soulmates with Dick he's decently well known on the internet.


	17. Marinette gets almost mugged and then gains an older brother

Waking up with a start from the alarm she set on her phone. She’d already sorted out when the first shipment of goods would come in for her to start baking which was agreed on Friday next week which meant she had to move as quickly as possible. She had sketched out what she wanted the bakery to look like and planned to follow that. She was meant to go get paint and furniture today for both the apartment and the bakery but first she needed to send out a flyer to look for roommates. 

She went to make herself coffee before remembering she hadn’t brought the coffee maker because she was going to jump back and get everything else after she’d gotten set up and suddenly she wished for death. Stumbling through the apartment she slipped on her hoodie and a pair of pants before grabbing a pair of shoes. She grabbed her backpack as well to have a bag just in case. Grabbing the keys she left with her phone in hand on the search for coffee and then to get paint. Her sketchbook was in her backpack which had her sketches of the apartment and the bakery. 

Wandering around Gotham without knowing where she was on second thought was not a very smart idea. Marinette realized this at about the moment she was pulled off the street and into an alley. Punching her attacker in the face was a very simple muscle memory type reaction from living as a paranoid superhero for years. Scurrying out of the alleyway as quickly as possible she ran directly into a man and knocked him right on over. 

Flailing to get up off the ground was probably not the best move as she stood up quickly and blurted out an apology as fast as she could. It more or less came out as scrambled words and letters because the adrenaline rush as a civilian was not the same as an adrenaline rush as a hero. 

“Kid , it’s fine, are you okay? You were running pretty fast to have knocked me down,” he laughed having stood up before shifting slightly from one leg to the other. 

“I’m good, I was trying to find a coffee shop but I ended up kind of lost and then I was pulled into this alley and then I think I punched the dude who grabbed me,” Marinette said brushing herself off. 

“Well I can take you to a coffee shop if you want, There’s one a few blocks away, Good Job for defending yourself, The bat clan are only really out at night unless any of the big dogs bust out to play,” He explained.

“Can you take me to the coffee shop? I just moved here yesterday, I still have to redecorate the entire bakery and I don’t have a coffee maker yet so I’m practically useless,” Marinette laughed slightly at her own despair. Finally having actually looked at the guy she knocked over. He was taller than her and had black hair with a single section of pure white. He wore a leather jacket and a red t-shirt underneath. He was decently attractive but not her type. 

“Yeah sure follow me, My name’s Jason, yours?” He nodded before turning to start walking to the coffee shop.

“Marinette, it’s nice to meet you,” She said as she followed next to him. 

“Nice to meet you too, So your new?” he asked breaking what could’ve been an awkward silence. 

“Yeah, I’m from Paris, I decided to move here and start a bakery before Hawkmoth was defeated and Paris isn’t exactly the same as before even after he was defeated by ladybug,” 

“I see, Hawkmoth was defeated around a month ago by those heroes in Paris,right? Wonder why they never called the league for help,” 

“Oh they tried but communications from Paris were blocked for some reason, I think the heroes contacted them once and then never again,” 

“Seriously, the league isn’t the best but surely they’d go help out,” 

‘Well when a girl in a spandex suit and a boy in a leather catsuit call they aren’t very responsive, After that ladybug and the mayor decided to cut off league contact because civilians were weaponized in super villains imagine what would happen if they had superpowers already. It was in Paris's best interest to cut contact and not allow the league in while Hawkmoth was around,” Marinette explained as best she could. 

“I guess that makes sense but I can’t imagine why no one outside of France knew anything about it,”

“Paris is a tourist hotspot, they rely on tourism, to actively show that a magical terrorist was in Paris would've been a horrible idea,” 

“Well, now that you put it that way it makes sense, we're here by the way,” he said, stopping in front of a coffee shop. “This is my brother’s favorite shop because they’ll give him extra espresso shots,” 

“Oh thank kwami for that,” Marinette muttered to herself. Walking into the coffee shop with Jason close behind they waited in the rather short line. 

“Hello and welcome to the Lucky Cat Cafe, what can i get for you today,” A teenager said and Jason ordered first. 

“Iced coffee double french vanilla double sugar and cream,” he said quickly and waited for the teen to put it into the machine before adding on a croissant to the order. 

“And your sister?” 

Jason looked like he was going to say something before Marinette chimed in “I’ll have a large coffee with as many shots of espresso you can give me,” Jason’s head snapped back to her and the teen looked concerned. 

“Are you sure? We’ve only ever given that order to Tim. Are you sure you’ll be okay with that amount of caffeine?” The teen looked like they were struggling in an attempt to warn her against the order. 

“Yes please, I’ll be fine besides I have a lot of work to do today anyway,” Marinette attempted to appease their worries after all she often drank death wish coffee in a bid to finish all of the work she had to do. 

“If you’re positive then,” The teen said before finally putting in the order. “Please wait for your drinks down there,” she pointed at the end of the counter. 

Marinette nodded and Jason was still looking at her in shock and confusion. She had to pull Jason slightly to get him to follow her. Finally after getting their coffee and Jason’s croissant he finally spoke up again. 

“I don’t know how you’re going to stomach that it probably tastes like battery acid,” Jason commented munching on the croissant. 

“Probably,” Marinette told him before lifting the coffee to her lips and chugged the whole drink looking Jason in the eyes the whole time. His eyes seemed to go through multiple emotions such as shock, confusion, and worry. 

“I-I can’t, Are you okay? I’ve only ever seen my brother do that and he’s a sleep deprived zombie,” Jason said looking incredibly worried. 

“I’m fine, promise, though I wish it was a bit stronger,” She muttered the last bit but Jason seemed to hear it anyway. She threw the cup into the trash can, having drunk all of it she didn’t feel the need to carry it around. “Anyway, Can you show me to the hardware store?”

“Uh, yeah, why?”

“I need paint so I can redecorate the bakery and my apartment,” 

“You’ve mentioned the bakery a bit but you haven’t mentioned the name,” 

“Ladybug’s Bakery, it’s named after the Parisian hero,” 

“It sounds good,”

“Thank you, I have to finish all the redecorating before next Friday when the ingredients come in,”

“That makes sense, If you need anything I’d be happy to help,” 

“I’d appreciate it but please don’t feel obligated to,” 

“It’s fine it kind of sounds fun, I’ve been looking for something to do recently,”

“If you’re positive, I need to find a roommate too, Living alone is lonely and having someone to cover half of rent would be best,”

“If you're looking for a roommate I do need an apartment since my brothers are loud to say the least,” 

“Well why don't we go and get the paint and then you can look at the apartment,”

“Alright, Follow me to the Hardware store,” Jason quickly threw away the plastic the croissant was in before opening the door and walking back onto the streets of Gotham. The streets were starting to become somewhat busy as the sun became more prominent or it should have become more prominent. The sky was overcast but the sky was lighter than it was earlier. Marinette quickly realized that she had woken up to the bakery alarm which sounded at 3:00 in the morning so that she could make the pastries fresh. 

The hardware store was much farther away then Marinette had thought but she had been a hero for three years so her stamina was insane. Jason didn’t seem to be having an issue either but it might just because he lived in the city for a long time Marinette thought. A chime came from her phone and she was quick to reach back into her pocket to grab it. She knew Adrien had texted her but she wasn’t expecting a phone call immediately after. Jason seemed to have noticed her slow down and stopped to wait for her. 

She answered the phone and before she had the chance to check how high the volume was a shout that was most definitely Adrien’s came through at full volume. 

“Mari! How’s Gotham? Do you love it?” Marinette was quick to turn down the volume when she found out how loud it was.

“I love it, not even a full day in and I’ve already had someone attempt to mug me,”

“You knocked them out though? Who am I kidding of course you did! Anyway This was more of a quick call. My mom is calling me down for breakfast and then I have to go get Bart from the hotel he’s staying at so he can meet my family. It had to be the day you moved to Gotham that I met my soulmate huh?” Adrien said quickly his voice was muffled slightly so he was probably walking through the house.

“It’s just our luck, Anyway I’ll tell you all about it in the group chat you seem busy, Remember if anything bad happens with that Allen boy tell me and I swear I’ll find him I don’t care if he’s friends with the Waynes,” Marinette said before tacking on a quick goodbye before hanging up the phone. 

Jason seemed interested but if he wanted to say anything about it he decided against it. He saw Marinette stuff her phone in her pocket and start walking to catch up. When she finally did, Jason began walking once again. The walk to the store was long but they managed to get there and check out the paints fairly quickly. She got a nice cream color for the bakery and a light gray for the apartment. She liked her room being the white shade it was already but grabbed a can of chalkboard paint for an accent wall in her room. Jason didn’t seem to be bothered when the cashier called them siblings either. 

“Do you want me to call for a cab?” Jason asked, carrying paintbrushes and rollers along with clear tarps and masking tape. They had gotten pretty fair from the hardware store and were on one of the bigger streets of Gotham.

“It would probably be for the best, I didn’t really think I would have this much stuff,” Marinette admitted. Jason was quick to hail a cab and Marinette were even quicker at getting into it. 

“Where are we going,” the cab driver asked and Marinette was quick to answer. 

“Right by Park Row,” Marinette answered absentmindedly, putting down the cans of paint she was carrying. The cab driver began driving through Gotham but Marinette didn’t pay much attention to the drive until Jason tapped on her shoulder to get her attention. 

“You didn’t mention that your bakery was in Crime Alley,” Jason told her.

“It didn’t come up, besides it was cheap and I’m broke,” She answered back as the cab came to a slow stop at the side of the road. Getting out of the cab Marinette grabbed the paints and Jason was quick to follow. 

The bakery was in a small cranny in the alley but it looked fairly nice for being in Crime Alley. Marinette placed the paint cans down and grabbed her keys opening the door for Jason. She picked up the cans and walked into the bakery herself.

“Ya know when you said that it was in Crime Alley I didn’t think it would be this nice,” Jason said, placing the items he was carrying on the granite counter before turning to look at the bakery in full. 

“I would hope I spent a lot of my commission money getting it fixed up for my arrival.” Marinette said placing the paint cans down. “Do you want to look at the apartment first?” 

Jason nodded and followed Marinette up the stairs to the apartment. The apartment was rather large but it looked bare. Marinette walked him through the whole apartment. 

“The only thing you’d really have to do is pick up after yourself. I get up really early to make pastries and I tend to stay up later as well. I don’t have any furniture yet because i just moved from Paris so I didn’t really bring anything,” Marinette told Jason “That’s about it.”

“That sounds really good, how much is rent?” 

“900 a month, it’s pretty low for Gotham but then again it’s in Crime Alley so it kinda slices all payments in half,” 

“Where do I sign because this sounds really good,” Jason said and Marinette really wondered how bad his brothers were that he would be so eager to leave the nest. 

“Give me a second to grab it from my room, which just by the way is off limits,” Marinette said, hurrying away from Jason and into her room where she had had Chloe type a lease so she could rent the room properly. Coming back out she set the lease on the kitchen counter top and handed Jason a pen. “If you’d like you can sign here and here and the room is yours,” 

“Happily,” Jason said, signing the lease before handing the pen back to Marinette. “I’m going to head back down stairs and crack open the cream paint for the Bakery,” Marinette nodded to him and she walked back to her room and placed his lease on her bed so she could deal with it later. She also decided to take off her hoodie leaving her white shirt underneath on. Marinette took a deep breath and felt herself become calm, happy she was finally in Gotham and had gained a roommate. She closed her bedroom door and made her way down stairs happy she was finally making a place for herself even if it was in Gotham’s Crime Alley. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason signed a lease real quick but honestly I would too if my brothers were that loud. I don't think he pictured Marinette's bakery in crime alley though.


	18. Discontinued

due to recent events, I feel I don't have the energy or the mental health to complete this fanfic how I originally planned. I would love to tell you about what I had originally planned on my Tumblr chesssocks or in the comments. 

when I started this fanfic I still had a hyper fixation in miraculous ladybug but that has since disappeared. I still love the fandom and the show but it's just not my main focus. I don't want to force myself to continue on writing anything that I lose true interest in. 

Thank you for the support and have a good afternoon, good morning, and good night! -HarlequinKing


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